I haven`t...are you asking or telling?

I`ve never had stage fright in front of other students, teachers, conducters, but I`ve always been too scared when I play in front of my best freinds or family. :S I guess I`m too scared of what they`ll think!

Ive written something in a thread named "District Band" about this. its in the flute forum.

Good news! My lesson went great! As soon as I felt my stomach knoting up, I`d just take a deep breath and think- "Nope!! Not gonna do that!!" and focused on having fun playing the music rather than freakin` every time I screeched. It also helped hearing a little girl play before me, who was having a much harder time than I am. I sort of had it in my head that all her other students must sound far better than I do, and it was a relief to hear another squeaky student!

Congrats! I think figuring out how to breath has a lot to do with it...LOL...

...hey, I`m better than the 5 year old working on Twinkle Twinkle...but the 11 year old who has her lesson before me (and we`re working from the same book) has got me beat...

Claire,

I swear, we are completely opposite. I could probably do a solo alone in front of a thousand people with my cello, but talk infront of that many people, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Besides of that, the only other thing that frightens me is going to a job interview, because I`m 21 and never had a real job before, besides a job with relatives. My mind just went BLANK, I just couldn`t really think of anything constructive to say, which was only yesterday. Now that`s stage fright!

Like I`m going to get that job at Office Depot, LOL

You`re 21, an accomplished musician (or so I`m assuming) and looking for work at Office Depot? Isn`t there somewhere more appropo to work?

Just wondering, don`t have to answer.

Hi! This is taken form the Alexander Technique website directly. Pls read. It has proven to be really helpful to performers, esp. violinists, vocalists and pianists. The Alexander Technique wis suppose to correct bad, stress causing physical habbits and instill good, muscles-relaxing ones. And miracously...it works well for pp with habbitual stage frights.

The F.M. Alexander Technique
by Marian Goldberg



We are often unaware of habits that cause us stress and interfere with our ability to respond effectively to the stimuli in our daily lives. How can we change our habits so that we can respond more effectively and achieve better functioning? This fundamental problem is addressed and dealt with in the Alexander Technique, a method that has been recognized for 100 years as a unique and remarkably effective technique of mind-body reeducation.


A Brief History



F. Matthias Alexander (1869-1955) was an Australian actor and teacher. He originally developed the Alexander Technique as a method of vocal training for singers and actors in the 1890s. While Alexander was developing his method of voice training, he realized that the basis for all successful vocal education was an efficiently and naturally functioning respiratory mechanism. So, in teaching voice, Alexander focused primarily on helping the breathing mechanism to function more effectively. Because of his focus on "re-educating" the breathing mechanism, some of Alexander`s students, who had come to him for vocal training, found that their respiratory difficulties also improved. These improvements were recognized by medical doctors who began referring their patients with respiratory ailments to Alexander for help. In this way, F.M. Alexander`s technique of vocal training developed into a technique he termed "respiratory re-education."

Alexander had also made the discovery that breathing and vocalization are part and parcel of how the body functions as a whole. Habitual breathing and vocal patterns are parts of habitual patterns of general coordination. In fact, many problems we see as involving just one particular part of the body, e.g. lower back pain and "RSI," are often symptoms of larger habitual patterns of malcoordination.

Just as people had found Alexander`s "vocal" technique helped them with their breathing problems, so a number of his students found his method of respiratory re-education helped them with other physical difficulties. Basically, Alexander had evolved a method for learning how to consciously change maladaptive habits of coordination. (Coordination includes movement, posture, breathing, and tension patterns.) He had come to the understanding that the mind and body function as an integrated entity, a rather unusual realization for that time. Alexander found that habits, whether "physical" habits or "mental" habits, are all psychophysical in nature. He observed that how we think about our activities determines how we coordinate ourselves to do those activities, and, equally, how long-held habits of excessive tension and inefficient coordination affect how we feel and think. In a relatively short period of time, Alexander evolved his technique from a method of vocal training into a method of breathing reeducation and then into a comprehensive technique of psychophysical reeducation. His technique deals with the psychophysical coordination of the whole person, or what he termed more concisely as "the use of the self."
-for the actual Alexander methods in muscles/breathing relaxation...pls go to http://www.alexandercenter.com/#1Anchor

Sounds like we all get jitter some times. With me, my mind is totally relaxed but my fingers and bow don`t cooperate and everything bounces around. I`ve heard the bananna thing, does anyone know of any other remedies? Like herbal or pills?....Sounds desperate eh?